Airways New Zealand has lodged a resource consent application with the Wellington City Council to build a new 32-metre-high airport control tower, designed to "lean" into the prevailing northerly wind at an angle of 12.5 degrees.

The nine-storey Rongotai tower is proposed for an industrial area at the southern end of Tirangi Rd, on airport land near Lyall Bay. It would give Wellington Airport's 20 air traffic controllers 360-degree views from the lookout area on the top floor.

The tower is intended to change colour according to the wind direction -- blue for southerly and purple for northerly.

Architect Evzen Novak, of Studio Pacific Architecture, says plans involved solid base isolation foundation features, which would ensure the building was secure in an earthquake and a southerly wind.

The degree of lean would be considerably more than Italy's Leaning Tower of Pisa, which today is about 4 degrees. Before 1990, when remedial work was done to correct its lean, it was at an angle of about 10 degrees.

Air Atlas was created on 9 October 1946 by the Résident général de France au Maroc (Resident General of France in Morocco). It began by operating two lines in November 1946 with ten 14-passenger Junkers Ju52's and five small 8-passenger Nord NC-702 Martinets. Following financial difficulties, Air France helped out and took a share of the capital. In 1951 this airline served travelers to France, as well as Morocco's interior lines, namely Casablanca-Marrakech-Agadir / Casablanca-Rabat-Oujda-Meknes / Rabat-Casablanca-Tangier. The acquisition of six Douglas DC-3's with 23 seats began in 1948. Three (some sources say two) Bloch (SE).161 Languedoc quadrimotors rented from Air France in 1952 rounded out the fleet.

In 1953 Air Atlas merged with Air Maroc and formed the Compagnie Chérifienne de Transports Aériens or CCTA. In 1957, the CCTA became Royal Air Maroc; the Morcoccan state held 55% of the capital, Air France 30%, Société Air Transport 10% and Aviaco (Spain) 5%.

During the by-election campaign, the Minister of Motorway Development, Steven Joyce, made a big mistake by cynically promising voters in the constituency, hitherto long held by his party, that millions more taxpayer dollars will be spent on strengthened road bridges in the region so they can carry even bigger trucks.

He clearly didn't appreciate that a great many people are tired of driving on heavily rutted and damaged roads caused by big trucks carrying freight, particularly logs, that could and should be going by rail instead.

Winston Peters, who has won the seat by a big margin, wants instead the region's railways restored.

This was a souvenir magazine from onboard the QSMV Dominion Monarch from 17 December 1945 to 23 January 1946 which contains stories, poems and cartoons of soldiers' experiences during WW2. A roll of passengers is at the back of it.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Photos of what is said to be the original livery show bands of red above the cab windows (where the three lights are) and at the bottom above the (Scharfenberg) coupler area and the rest silver, rather than what is shown here. It's likely the artist had only seen a b/w photo.

A total 40 sets were built and had a 2 '(A1A) (A1A)' 2 ' axle arrangement. All were withdrawn by 1964. At least one is preserved, in the Dutch Railway Museum in Utrecht.

This one happened to be in Rotterdam on 14 May 1940, the day Hitler's Luftwaffe destroyed the city by bombing.

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All at Sea: stories of New Zealand seafarers

Narratives from interviews conducted over several years with 16 merchant navy sailors - 14 men and 2 women - who recounted their stories from the last full fledged sailing ship, the Pamir being returned to her home country of Finland after WWII to recent stories on today's inter-island ferries and coastal vessels, as well as international cargo and passenger ships which sailed to various parts of the globe. A full range of occupations are covered from Deck Boy, Engineer, Steward to Master as well as harbour pilots, union leaders and shipping company executives.

NZR Memorabilia

A fabulous new book containing many colourful illustrations of old postcards, pamphlets, posters, and a wide range of objects that have been used by the NZR and its personnel from the 1860s to the present time. Together they tell in visual form the importance of NZR to NZ and its people over the past 150 years and provides a useful reference for collectors.

Voyage to Gallipoli

Details of the troopships to the Gallipoli campaign of WW1 and more WW1 naval history.